


the sponsee

by 15699



Series: prince of tennis drabbles [3]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Fudōmine, Gen, Midoriyama Junior High, Seigaku, St Rudolph Academy, characters listed in the order they show up, lapslock, most of the characters are honestly only barely mentined, pro athlete sponsors, ryoma speaks a bit of chinese in here apparently, sponsors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 22:49:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21026018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/15699/pseuds/15699
Summary: rather than not telling anyone about having sponsorships, ryoma thinks his teammates are either a little slow on the notice or are coincidentally never around when he does anythingi guess this is kind of a part 2 for sponsored by. i started typing this and then got to 1,900 words by pure excitement hihiim not sure if you can read this without sponsored by, but the main idea is:ryoma grew up in the tennis world and is kind of more high class than his teammates think he is.





	the sponsee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aileen_Lykaios](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aileen_Lykaios/gifts).

> as Aileen_Lykaios commented:  
"More please! Maybe from the reaction of seigaku?  
When they know about dinners and sponsors...  
Cómo se pronuncia  
They might meet a sponsor in the street and ryoma act polite and respectful ..."

ryoma had honestly been surprised that none of his upperclassmen had found out about his activities outside of school or club, so far. inui-senpai was the most betted on, in regards to who would figure out the situation first. ryoma had been regularly setting time away since april for sponsor events, so from when the classes at seigaku first began there would be no issues with making sure to attend events and entertain his sponsors. maybe that was part of why the tennis regulars didn’t find anything different from his routine, because the sponsors were already an ingrained part of his routine.

inui had begun to be suspicious and came close to finding out right before the regional tournaments began, though. ryoma and ayane were headed towards the atobe mansion for another sponsor event, this time they came as keigo’s friends, when inui caught a glimpse of them in a luxurious vehicle. this was probably the beginning spark to the statistical man’s curiosity. 

unfortunately for inui, however, one of ryoma’s sponsors fell ill a couple days later and so ryoma’s monthly sponsored event had to be delayed. since there was nothing for ryoma to do, the youngest seigaku regular napped away his free time or was grinding on the tennis courts again. for a whole week, inui watched as he ryoma walked back and forth from school to home, without any interesting incidences. the upperclassman was ready to give up on the futile data gathering.

and then, the day of regionals came about. just as the team was registering, inui saw ryoma give a lazy wave to someone running just past the corner of a building, taking them away from inui’s field of vision.

“did you see a friend, echizen?”

the youngest tennis regular from their team looked up, and up, at the third year. “more like a heads up warning, senpai.”

a heads up warning? what would echizen need a warning for?

the heads up was for a scout, apparently. for every several meters they walked, there would be someone talking about the scout from solier corporations, one of the most recognizable sports brands. even amongst the team, they were talking about how nice it would be to score a sponsorship. but everyone would be thinking the same thing, and that meant that everyone would be playing more intensely to try and capture the scout’s attention. 

the gameplay against hyotei was intense, leading to ryoma and the hyotei reserve playing to determine the winner. while standing next to inui, fuji pointed out a brief interaction between echizen and atobe. the two were standing off to the side, outside of the court they were just at, while they both were talking with frowns on their faces. atobe finally had the last word, apparently, since echizen’s expression quickly shut down before coming back as neutrally as possible. but even as atobe watched the younger student walk back to his team, there was a tension in the corners of his eyes.

inui was just about to give up on the suspicion that echizen was doing something strange, but this was proof that the youngest regular had something interesting going on away from seigaku.

  
  


rather than inui finding out by himself, ryoma ended up being publicly outed while he was out with the seigaku tennis team. they were at a larger department store in the city where someone, probably momoshiro or ryuzaki-sensei, suggested they go for a “team building outing”. they just wanted to go shopping. everyone had split into groups or gone off by themselves in the department store, planning to meet for lunch later. it was really just ryoma’s luck that he would run into a familiar kid, crying and lost, not ten minutes after splitting ways from everyone else.

eiji-senpai and fuji-senpai were the first two to run into ryoma before the meetup time. the pair had two bags each, and were already snacking on some food as they wandered the mall. eiji was already waving enthusiastically at ryoma before his eyes followed down even further to the smaller human attached to him by the hand.

“ochibi,” ryoma already knew that eiji was about to start being dramatic from the tone of his voice. “ochibi are you in the middle of a kidnapping attempt?”

ryoma had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes in front of the younger kid next to him. “she’s the daughter of someone i know, senpai. i wouldn’t stage a kidnapping in such a public place.” turning to the child still holding his hand, he explained the situation as simply as possible. “meng guo, these are some people from my school. are you okay to wait until your dad is ready to pick you up?”

“you speak chinese, echizen?” fuji-senpai’s curiosity was definitely peaked, and there was no way to hide from the strange genius. next to him, eiji was murmuring something about kidnappings and keeping the police away from his favorite underclassman.

meng guo stared up and watched as ryoma spoke to the other people. the older boy was explaining that his chinese speaking abilities were only conversational at best. but even on her best behavior, meng guo had to go use the bathroom. like, very soon. 

“brother, i need to go use the restroom.” ryoma quickly ditched his senpai with a quick excuse before taking the little chinese girl towards the nearest bathroom.

meng guo joined the seigaku tennis club during lunch as well, seated on ryoma’s right. the tennis members were infinitely more curious now that he showed up with a child instead of shopping bags. he should have expected that momoshiro would jump straight to kidnapping, just as eiji did. his three classmates, horio, kato, and katsuo, had also managed to tag along on the team  shopping building outing. ryoma side eyed the way the three began to look at him with wide sparkling eyes the moment they heard him speak chinese.

before anyone could start ambushing ryoma with questions, however, he caught sight of meng guo's father. "mr. geng gui ying, it's good to see you." ryoma and meng guo had stood to meet with the older man. behind him, ryoma knew that at least ninety percent of his schoolmates were staring at him. "may i ask you how your business went?"

"thank you for safely watching over my daughter, ryoma. im working on a new venture design for new shoes, actually." meng guo was now safely nestled in her father's arms, contentedly watching the conversation. "in fact they should be done soon and i was just coming around to see the future display in the city. i will bring you a pair tomorrow as a thank you gift, actually."

ryoma nodded his thanks. "it would be my pleasure to wear the new solier products, mr. geng. i will gladly wear them." ryoma barely watched the chinese pair turn the corner before his teammates were immediately jumping onto him.

"ryoma, that was the owner of solier corporations! how do you know him??"

"what did you guys talk about? I heard him thank you??"

"was that his daughter?? ryoma you know the solier corporation owner's daughter??"

ahh what a troublesome situation.

ryoma wasnt ashamed of the fact he was a sponsee, in fact practically every athlete was interested in a solier sponsorship, but he had thought he could wait a little longer into the school year before the news broke out. in as many words as he could avoid saying without breaching his contract, the youngest seigaku regular vaguely explained the situation. he had always grown up in the tennis world, and was expected to pick up sponsors through his connections. the solier corporation’s sponsorship was actually relatively new, considering solier was only just starting to branch into sponsoring tennis athletes and ryoma had joined just before the school year began in japan. he didn’t tell them that this wasn’t his first sponsorship, or that he knew a lot more sponsor scouts than they would expect, though.

the next day, the seigaku regulars practically stared blatantly as ryoma spoke to an older man after the club training. moments later, he disappeared into the changing rooms and reappeared in a rather fashionable outfit. dressed with a new dark jumper that gave detail to the white collar of a polo hidden underneath, but paired with black ripped jeans and a chain detail. he was even wearing accessories such as rings and a chain necklace. this was an extra step above the casual wear ryoma usually wore out. but probably what caught the most attention, at least once they finally saw it, was the new pair of shoes he was wearing. the ones with the solier logo branded onto the side that no one had ever seen before. the  _ rumored and unreleased _ new pair of shoes from solier corporations that was set to be released next week.

ryoma left with a wave and short ‘goodbye’s to his team members. and then the ryoma fangirl, tomoka osakada, showed up not even five minutes later. kachiro and katsuo caught each other’s eyes and for a brief moment, shared a momentary telepathic connection with each other: the relief that the girl hadn’t seen ryoma, and consequently gone crazy, was practically palatable. 

  
  


when seigaku went to visit saint rudolph academy, mizuki hajime seemed even more annoying than when they had first played against each other during the tokyo prefecturals. echizen and the younger fuji, yuuta, had begun to strike a slowly easing friendship. the older fuji, shuusuke, always seemed to be contemplating the best way to cause physical harm to mizuki while staying just within the borders of legalities.

one of ryoma’s favorite parts of the day was when yuuta innocently complimented ryoma about his new shoes. the pair had been warming up together on the side, stretching their bodies to avoid an amateur disaster, when the older boy made a comment about how he enjoyed the appeal in the appearance of brand new crisp white shoes, like the ones ryoma was wearing right now.

“you think so? i’ll make sure to tell my solier sponsor your review, senpai.”

five minutes later, yuuta jolted to a stop while they were running laps. “you’re being sponsored by solier corporations!?” the exclamation was a little louder than expected, enough so that majority of the people in the surrounding area came to a slow halt to take in the new information.

  
  


when the second week of the kanto regional tournaments began, ryoma wore the still unreleased solier sneakers as per part of the sponsorship agreement. midoriyama junior high had been believed to be strong, sporting only second year regulars and employing three specialist coaches in order to maximize to their strengths and cover their weaknesses. and as such, playing against midoriyama junior high was ridiculously easy. far too confident in themselves, they took seishun gakuen lightly and consequently became the cause of their downfall. although looking back objectively, fudomine was probably a stronger opponent.

the quarterfinals and semifinals matches ended up taking the large majority of the audience attention, so hardly anyone blinked an eye at ryoma’s new piece of attire. a couple days later, a weekly sports magazine released an article about a japanese middle school student wearing the new solier sneakers that would be released to the public next week. surprisingly, ryoma’s face had been “blurred” out in the article, but anyone who knew him would be able to recognize the photo. the article was full of speculations about who he was and whether he was being sponsored by solier corporations or simply just had connections into the company. (the answer was yes to both.)

ayane had cut the article out and framed it as a hilarious parody gift. rinko had hung it up in his room.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> please tell me if you would like more of this !! also just comment anything for me too, if its not a bother !!


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